Humans Of India
If we all could see the world through the eyes of a child, we would see magic in everything
"I'm going to be a engineer!"
"I think I'll learn to be a primary school teacher."
& I dare you to reckon who said what.
"Khaabaar [food]? Chips? Paani? Please?" she said. She later introduced herself as Malia, and this moment would be her first not-scavenged-from-trash-piles meal consumed all week. What was more disturbing than that was what she proceeded to say, following her request: "Doya kore, I will give anything."
Anything - it's a level of desperation that, if she approached the wrong person, would likely lead her to be sexually abused. Over 50% of India's children are taken advantage of. Malia is just one of the 500 million children in India. In her world, one in every three children of the 500 million live in poverty. I come from a different land - my third of the world is battling obesity and spending huge sums to burn off excess calories. Malia's world, the other two-thirds of this Earth, yearns to get more of them. Why is it that the only time she tasted kulfi was when newspaper photographers came to visit? Why is it that in Malia's world, living a decent life is getting lucky enough to scrape out a half-eaten bhatura from the dumpster, barely escaping the wrath of the slumlord you refused to strip down for in order to have a drink of clean water, and evading the outbreak of malaria in your village?
I love India, but becoming attached to a country involves pressing, uncomfortable questions about justice and opportunity for its least powerful citizens. Questions that very few people are willing to address, let alone ask.
It might be depressing, but it's also the truth that no one has the power, the money, or the resources to save everyone in India from going hungry, living in poverty or allowed basic human rights. Even still, I like to consider the other side of this: there are people in this world who really would do all of these things for everyone if only they could. So, there is hope after all.
Help me help Malia, if you're one of the people within whom I have instilled my hope. Help Malia and the hundreds of millions of little ones just like her.
http://www.careindia.org/give
By defining India's problem as "hunger and a lack of job opportunities," we're directing our attention away from the more fundamental problem of poverty, and the even more basic issue of the lack of compassion in us humans.
"My name is Shanti. I do this work to have food, so I thank Krishna for this."
"How long is your work, today?"
"Until it is dark, when I cannot see the bricks."
Daqui.
Que dor.
<3 br="">
"I'm going to be a engineer!"
"I think I'll learn to be a primary school teacher."
& I dare you to reckon who said what.
I
remember my dad asking me, 'Could you wait until we die? Think about
us.' His great fear was that I would publicly identify as an Indian
woman who is attracted to other women. After a year since that
conversation and coming out publicly, of
working to explain to my family that being gay is not a medical issue,
that I value my own life enough to make thoughtful choices, and that
they could not ask me to put their pride above my individual right to
love. December 2013 hurts me every day.”
Being apart of a democracy is about having the right to be who you are. Except, sometimes that doesn't happen.
The arc of the moral and legal universe strayed from justice when the Supreme Court of India upheld India's colonial-era law that criminalizes sexual relations between same-sex partners. The law, known as Section 377, calls for the imprisonment for anybody who "voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature." It has been repeatedly used against members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities in India, and provides the police with one more excuse to persecute, extort and incarcerate law-abiding people whose only 'crime' is that they do not conform to the traditional view of sexuality: heterosexuality. What they fail to realize is that heterosexuality is not normal. It's just common. There are anywhere between 90 and 100 million people in India who are gay, lesbian or bisexual.
I'm still not quite able wrap my mind around the decision. By no means does one's sexual orientation define him or her as a person, but it does play a significant role here on planet Earth, where to love and to be loved is what we live for. If you're asking yourself, is the Indian government is at once criminalizing and denying our raison d'être, the essence of humanity, the basic human right to love and be loved? Yes, it is. For all those who stand by Section 377, take a moment to reflect: Why? Where is the morality in disenfranchising an entire community and criminalizing them for expressing their God-given nature? Where is the Godliness in creating and perpetuating a culture of violence and brutality against the LGBT community.
The Court decision has left the LGBT community vulnerable to harassment, social stigma and extortion by police, family, and neighbors. The outrage that the ruling prompted within me has also been reminiscent of the indignation across India. Along with that comes some promise that the arc of the universe (or specifically, of Indian law) will curve toward justice once again.
After all, in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “What barrier is there that love cannot break?”
http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/love-is-not-a-crime-protect-our-right-to-equality-repeal377
Being apart of a democracy is about having the right to be who you are. Except, sometimes that doesn't happen.
The arc of the moral and legal universe strayed from justice when the Supreme Court of India upheld India's colonial-era law that criminalizes sexual relations between same-sex partners. The law, known as Section 377, calls for the imprisonment for anybody who "voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature." It has been repeatedly used against members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities in India, and provides the police with one more excuse to persecute, extort and incarcerate law-abiding people whose only 'crime' is that they do not conform to the traditional view of sexuality: heterosexuality. What they fail to realize is that heterosexuality is not normal. It's just common. There are anywhere between 90 and 100 million people in India who are gay, lesbian or bisexual.
I'm still not quite able wrap my mind around the decision. By no means does one's sexual orientation define him or her as a person, but it does play a significant role here on planet Earth, where to love and to be loved is what we live for. If you're asking yourself, is the Indian government is at once criminalizing and denying our raison d'être, the essence of humanity, the basic human right to love and be loved? Yes, it is. For all those who stand by Section 377, take a moment to reflect: Why? Where is the morality in disenfranchising an entire community and criminalizing them for expressing their God-given nature? Where is the Godliness in creating and perpetuating a culture of violence and brutality against the LGBT community.
The Court decision has left the LGBT community vulnerable to harassment, social stigma and extortion by police, family, and neighbors. The outrage that the ruling prompted within me has also been reminiscent of the indignation across India. Along with that comes some promise that the arc of the universe (or specifically, of Indian law) will curve toward justice once again.
After all, in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “What barrier is there that love cannot break?”
http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/love-is-not-a-crime-protect-our-right-to-equality-repeal377
"Khaabaar [food]? Chips? Paani? Please?" she said. She later introduced herself as Malia, and this moment would be her first not-scavenged-from-trash-piles meal consumed all week. What was more disturbing than that was what she proceeded to say, following her request: "Doya kore, I will give anything."
Anything - it's a level of desperation that, if she approached the wrong person, would likely lead her to be sexually abused. Over 50% of India's children are taken advantage of. Malia is just one of the 500 million children in India. In her world, one in every three children of the 500 million live in poverty. I come from a different land - my third of the world is battling obesity and spending huge sums to burn off excess calories. Malia's world, the other two-thirds of this Earth, yearns to get more of them. Why is it that the only time she tasted kulfi was when newspaper photographers came to visit? Why is it that in Malia's world, living a decent life is getting lucky enough to scrape out a half-eaten bhatura from the dumpster, barely escaping the wrath of the slumlord you refused to strip down for in order to have a drink of clean water, and evading the outbreak of malaria in your village?
I love India, but becoming attached to a country involves pressing, uncomfortable questions about justice and opportunity for its least powerful citizens. Questions that very few people are willing to address, let alone ask.
It might be depressing, but it's also the truth that no one has the power, the money, or the resources to save everyone in India from going hungry, living in poverty or allowed basic human rights. Even still, I like to consider the other side of this: there are people in this world who really would do all of these things for everyone if only they could. So, there is hope after all.
Help me help Malia, if you're one of the people within whom I have instilled my hope. Help Malia and the hundreds of millions of little ones just like her.
http://www.careindia.org/give
By defining India's problem as "hunger and a lack of job opportunities," we're directing our attention away from the more fundamental problem of poverty, and the even more basic issue of the lack of compassion in us humans.
"My name is Shanti. I do this work to have food, so I thank Krishna for this."
"How long is your work, today?"
"Until it is dark, when I cannot see the bricks."
Daqui.
Que dor.
<3 br="">
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